the 45 girls of lightcraft
by Yuki Bannokami
Summary: A kidnapped witch, a Teenage girl and the different races coming into conflict. which first? A rescue or a war?
1. Chapter 1

The 45 girls of Lightcraft

_A tall bluish-brown skinned girl in a native Indian-american dress travelled through the night on a lush green mountain plain, where the grass was long enough for wind to ripple the grass as though it was the ocean. In her hand, there was a longbow filled to the brim with magic. The sky with its starry eyes stared at this lonely figure, when she stopped at the peak of a grassy hill and she drew the straightest arrow and aimed it at the night sky, as though she had a grudge against the unforgiving stars in the space above._

"Houmonovi scardi, _find her and warn her, my little lines of wisdom," she said, before she released the string and the arrow shot out, light shards that formed a phoenix, before disappearing into the dark sky._

**Chapter 1**

There was a campfire in the middle of a dark wood, and while the hunters were almost ready for anything, they were not ready for a child in a loin cloth filled with magic marks that supplied warmth and protection, but only enough for an hour or two. It was plainly obvious to the hunters that the child was abandoned for the hunters to find, since the child was crying and shouting incomprehensible words that shook even the toughest nerve of the men, so they quickly calmed the child and sent the quickest man to carry the child back to the camp.

"Child, what is your name?" the nanny at the campfire asked the child, who was shivering even at the presence of a huge fire. The child shivered, and spoke in a clear voice, "My name is Armarmia Gedons."

"Armarmia, which is such a wonderful name by the way, can you read this out please?" the nanny handed out a piece of encrypted paper that reveals a person's true nature. Armarmia took the piece of paper and read out what is normally expected for a Duranei, the first half of the Duranei beliefs. However, the second half was in witch's Latin, the second half of the witch's tale. The people around the campfire gasped and muttered endlessly, scared of the little girl in front of them.

"She's a witch!"

"She's an enemy!"

"Kill the witch!"

"Witch! Witch! Witch! Witch!"

The girl was frightened, her blue skin suddenly becoming bitonal, as the witch's pure white surfaced, and covered her abstractly. Suddenly, a Latin mark of silence appeared, and everybody became still. "Take me to the Lightcraft academy, the ones that has only girls in it, and I will join the ranks of the 45 ladies of Lightcraft, the highest position a female can achieve, short of becoming the empress, and I will prove to you that a mixed blood can be noble!" the little girl cried out, though it was plainly obvious that it was not her voice, since she was still trembling and the voice was booming and deep, so deep it shook the very core of man and woman, forcing themselves to even keep on breathing, since that voice surely took over their lungs. The girl then became blue again, and collapsed.

Later that fateful night, a horde of imps closed on the villages, wearing combat gear and chameleon clothes. They stored camouflaged guns in their spiritual pouches, and snipers positioned themselves on stationary flying dragons that were harnessed for the special ops. These imps were highly reliable to finish the job, with as little casualties as possible, mainly because they were technical assassins. Nature had forced imps to be assassins since their strength and defence weren't as good, so they became streamlined and fast, with poisonous shards in their skin and automatic suicide glands if they were captured. They were also very quiet and their weight is spread out evenly, so that they don't make as much noise.

The leader silently got out a M700, a standard sniper, and set his sights on the nearest guard. An explosion of blood and bone sprayed the wall behind him, and they crept on. They were given orders, namely 5th freedom for everyone but the little girl, whom was to be sent to the F.M.R (Facility for Mixed Races) before they set fire to the village. The special ops were never told why, since that was confidentiality on the customer's part. They approached the girl, as though approaching a blade of grass. As a hand stretched out to her head, her eyes snapped open and then all was black.

"Armarmia? Armarmia? Where are you, you little witch?" the nanny of the orphanage called out, for in the middle of night there were loud noises and the nanny was fed up. As she walked into the outside, she saw hundreds of corpses and gunfire, so she screamed, as an imp put a in her head, which disappeared under a stream of bone and blood and brain. "Complete annihilation," the imp whispered, and headed outside to the treacherous night.

As her eyes opened, the imp hesitated, but that hesitation cost him his life, since Armarmia breathed fire from her mouth and the imp's head was engulfed in flames, melting his brain. The other imps opened fire, but Armarmia dodged, killing everyone by using her knife and stabbed them in the head. As the last imp in the room fell to his earthen grave, she picked up the automatic machine gun in his hands, and exited, shooting point-blank at the imp's head who was standing guard. With blood and white flesh splattering the floor, as Armarmia looked around, she saw imps surrounding her. Not only were they prepared, some were in a seething rage because they saw their brother-in-arms massacred by this girl.

"Little girl, we mean you no harm, but we need to escort you to your destination, and if you go with us willingly, we will not kill you, but any resistance will be punished," the leader spoke into the microphone, and the little witch smiled.

"And what if I refuse?"

"You die; it's as simple as that."

Armarmia smiled, and a black light surrounded her.

"Don't underestimate the power of a witch…" and the black light expanded and engulfed the imps, signifying the end of the battle. All there were left of the camp, was an encrypted paper, the bottom half still showing Latin.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It was a bustling school day for Ayumu Matasuu. Everyday was a bustling school day for Ayumu anyways, so she had not counted this day as extraordinary. She would yell at her older brother to stop calling her, since she was awake, and then grumble as she went to the bathroom to wash-up. Unluckily for her, she slipped on something on the waxy floor, and fell. "Damn you! Shinta, get here now!" Her little brother came in the bathroom.

"First of all, when I say no toys in the bathroom, I mean it. Not even if it is for the bath, not even if it was in there already, not even if it's not yours, so when I say…"

"Onee-chan, that isn't a toy…" Shinta pointed, and Ayumu looked at it, amazed. It was a glowing rock, and it had witch's Latin on it.

"Weird and weirder…"

As Ayumu rushed down the stairs, the TV was on, showing the news channel about a village being destroyed, her brother's last meal was splattered all over, and her older brother, Shorou, was washing the dishes.

"Good mornin' Ayumu, how was your first year at Light craft's academy?"

"Jeez, Shorou, that was pretty late!" Ayumu replied, since it was start for a new year, and Ayumu realised she was running very late

"Good bye Onee-chan!" Shinto called after her, but she was already a speck in the distance….

The Academy was a giant sculpture, consisting of a main building, which was essentially a Chinese style temple, which dominated the entire Academy area. It was surrounded by various departments, such as the triangular structure of the R&D department (also known as the late science department, since it blew up when a fusion reactor collapsed), while the literature building was 20 blocks of glass and metal constructed in such a way that each one was connected to the other blocks directly, 190 connections; connections that were hollow tubes that contained trans-pods, a little cubicle for transportation. Each block has a direct link to the library and also a service station for the students there. The mathematical department was on par with the literature, since it was a rectangular hectosphere, where the rectangular sides were of golden-ratio, and over 100 million digits of pi were inscribed on the walls. The most amazing achievement though, was the art and design block, were the structure was situated above the main path to the entrance to the academy, the shape of which was like a rolling wave, I shimmering display of glass and steel, which was a near impossible structure, while the interior design and the shape of the structure, trumped even the most famous of all art projects. This was the sight Ayumu saw as she ran towards the entrance, late for her first day at school. As Ayumu reached the school gates, she noticed the rock grew brighter as she was closer to the academy.

"Strange, I think I'll check it out in the library…." She said, while going to her classroom.

"Sorry I'm late, sensei, I fell over…." She began, but stopped when she noticed another new person standing up in front the class, and her blue skin shone vibrantly, outlining her petite features.

"My name is Armarmia Gedons, and I am a Duranei," Armarmia smiled, and the sun poked its head out of the clouds, as the rays of light touched Armarmia and Ayumu, connecting them.

"Welcome, Armarmia-chan, and we hope you feel happy here," the teacher smiled, before glaring at Ayumu, and scolded her for being so late.

"Sorry sensei, I fell over on my way here…"Ayumu replied apologetically, rubbing her head with her hand, "…Sensei? Where is my seat?" as Ayumu looked around for it.

"It's next to the windows, behind Armarmia's chair." The teacher scowled.

"Now, this is going to be your second year at Lightcraft Academy, and I hope that the previous year had prepared you for the upcoming years. As you all know, this academy is for the teachings of Lightcraft, or in general, Intelligence. We will teach you various subjects situated around this area for your 45 L.E.E, or the 45 Ladies of Lightcraft Entrance Exam, where over 1,000,000 girls are going to apply for. However, the odds are greater, since there will only be 9 places for Lightcraft, and 500,000 candidates. So you must try your hardest, otherwise you will fall." The teacher explained this shocking news to her already bedazzled students, and murmurs came all around.

"500,000 people…so many…"

"I not sure…."

"Damn, I thought it was just this school…"

"I'm scared…"

"Alright students, it's time to open your advanced Maths at page 3, and we start at quadratic equations…." And the teacher turned to the blackboard and started writing complicated solutions.

After class, Ayumu jumped out of the main doors and waited for her friends, when she smelt a strange smell, of reiatsu-burn…

"Something's going on…," and she leapt into school again, calling out to her friends, "I'll be back in a sec…" and disappeared into the library.

Ayumu crept up the great spiral staircase in the west lobby of the library, which dominated the top of the south triangular building, like a giant dome, but in reality it was a sphere, since the bottom part was submerged into the south building, the R&D centre.

"….Mother never said how big the library was….and how scary it was…" Ayumu shivered, for the light in the library were dimmed to stimulate concentration, and hastily made her way up the stairs, and sat in a chair facing the wall. Taking out the glowing rock, she noticed it was glowing almost blindingly bright, engulfing the room with the many pieces of light emitted through the rock. Ayumu shielded her eyes, just as the rock went out.

"Hey! Unauthorised light source is forbidden! Get back here!" the library monitor barked at Ayumu, or rather where Ayumu was just a few seconds ago, since she was already running down the stairs.

Ayumu was sitting at her desk, going on to her interface, looking up research on the glowing rock of hers. So far, her screen came up blank every time, each time causing her to expand her search, until she gave up.

Ayumu sighed at her new rock, which was now completely dull. "Maybe it isn't worth it, it's probably some R&D material found by Shinta in the nursery, maybe I'll hand it in, see what Prof Spielberg can find what's in it…" and she fell asleep in her chair, when a fluttering of cloth can be heard nearby.

A crow flew past a derelict building, soaring through the black clouds as the rain started; a crack of thunder and lightning, then it fell out of the sky, its intestines ripped apart as an animal-like monster bolted through the night sky. It came back, swallowing the remaining carcass before it hit the ground. Blood dripped through its mouth, before a grey tongue licked it up. "That was not worth my time, Cobren," the monster snarled. His mouth chewed the slaughtered crow, bones chipping off and flying out.

"You know fully well that this land is barren in any type of edible food, and it is pure luck that brought the crow here." The person next to him replied, in a voice that could have only been made through living by several upper class families. However, the robes and hood he wore spook otherwise, since his robe was long and tattered, and was pitch black, yet not revealing his body shape in any way; the hood had an insignia that screamed of underground corporations, and only a stray moonbeam revealed his chin; the chin that grew slight stubble. His sword, hanging by chains over his back, was enchanted with darkcraft, was narrower than a man's two fingers, and as long as his body. The white sheath was decorated with black markings, of which could render a person unconscious if it was glanced at long enough.

"You say that Cobren, but did you really think that I would wait here for some unknown message? What stops me from leaving and spilling our secrets?" The monster bared his teeth, which almost took the entire width of his face. His skin was tanned, and strained, as though even the muscles in his face were bulging. Likewise as his partner, his hood covered all but his mouth; however, his insignia was of a monster clan, notorious for its bounty hunters. His rope was fitting to burst, outlining every single bulging muscle, and every single protruding bone. Each of the bones was filed to an infinitesimal point, so each was capable of cutting any substance on earth. Every bone was also situated at the most efficient point in his body, for defence, attack and counter. He was tall, a bit taller than is master, who was considered the tallest of his kind. This height often dwarfed the tallest human in comparison, but his companion often made it so, usually by removing all but their heads.

"I shall stop you from leaving here, by force, or by your sanity, Lucifer" and Cobren lifted up a glowing hand. The light shone brilliantly, which then pierced the sky, as though it was another strike of lightning.

"….No need to go to extremes, I know my place," Lucifer snarled, "And my name is not Lucifer, it is Rage!" He shook the ground with his gargantuan feet. The earth cracked, just as a shining Phoenix flew by.

"There's the bird, do we catch it now?" Rage asked Cobren.

"No…we follow it," with that, Cobren disappeared after it.

"HEY! You can't use that light speed thing of yours, ain't fair!" Rage yelled, running after him, as he also disappeared after the night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"….so, if we reverse the tangent line of this hypotenuse, we can reverse the equation to prove our theory…." the teacher droned on the second day of school, with Ayumu staring blankly at the interactive projection, lost in confusion. Judging the looks on each of her peers but two, they were in the same state. "…and so, we prove that using reverse quotas, the Tri-Cosine is real, any questions?" the teacher smiled at the class.

Everybody raised their hands, except for two. One of them was the smartest of the group, Linda Spielberg and the other was Armarmia.

"Yes, Miss Soul, you can ask a question." The teacher picked her at random.

"Can you explain the first 5 seconds of the lecture? Afterwards, the next 5 seconds, and then the rest, please?" Maka asked.

"I can't see how that can confuse you, it's really simple…" then looked at the many faces of shocked expressions.

"I see…none of you have opened your textbooks yesterday, have you? I suppose I'll start again…" the teacher sighed, and began to rub out the board, before Armarmia interrupted.

"Miss, isn't x over the square root of cosine, =1.698, not 1.689?" Armarmia interrupted, before shutting her mouth in surprise.

"I'm sure Miss Gedons, and…wait, you are right, it does equal 1.698. Glad you spotted that." And the teacher repeated the lecture again, much to everybody's disappointment.

"Did you understand the question at all? It looked like chaos theory just blitzed out our board." Ayumu's friend asked her.

"Not one bit, not even the first letter, it looked like ancient Pharaohs took over the board that time." She replied, giggling. It was break, and the group was sitting under the design block, the cool sun providing ample light and warmth. Suddenly, a shadow fell on them, blocking all light.

"May I sit here? It is awfully cold." Armarmia piped, speaking perfect English, with only a slight Duranei accent.

"Sure, Einstein, and in the meantime, stop showing off." One of the meaner friends of Ayumu snarled at her.

Ayumu slapped her friend that made that remark, and then apologised to Armarmia. "Sorry, she gets to be touchy to people who are smarter than her, but how did you know?"

"Maybe because she's a nerd." The sarcastic friend, Maka Soul, mumbled.

"Or maybe the nerd at least read the text book, rather than asking obvious questions," Armarmia snapped at Maka, and Maka fell silent. "The equation is simple really, you just need to remember the values of cosine and the square root to 3 decimal places," and Armarmia drew out an algorithm, and explained it to the dumbstruck group.

"Where did you learn this?" One of the more bedazzled friends asked, adding hastily, "My name is Ino, call me Ino-chan if you want."

"I learned it at my old school, at the…Duranei Academy for Gifted People." Armarmia hesitated, for she did not trust these people yet.

"Wow…so you really are a stuck up nerd with no life," Maka replied, determined not to be battled down by this new student.

Armarmia frowned, and then sighed. She did not plan on using sarcasm at all, but then again…

"Oh? If I'm such a nerd, then why don't I help you then…wait, I don't need to, because you are so clever yourself, aren't you?"

Maka just stared at Armarmia, and then she started eating, her head down in shame. Meyacha gasped at Armarmia comeback. Of course, Maka was terribly mean, but she deserved nothing to be called stupid. She knew how much she had studied each night, just to stay in class, and how her older brothers and sisters taunted her for being the bad egg in the family.

"Hey Armarmia, I think you should say sorry, that was a little mean," one of the most clear minded person spoke.

"Hmf. It's not my fault that she is stu…" and Armarmia was cut off when Meyacha grabbed her by the neck and dragged her behind a tree.

"What do you think you're doing, coming on in like that, and threatening her? I know she can be annoying but do you realize what she's been through?" Ayumuu hissed, with rage tinting her voice.

"No…not really, but she has no right to call me a nerd after what I've been through."

"Oh really? What have you been thro…" Suddenly the bell rang, cutting her off.

"You have no idea, Ayumuu," and Armarmia left for the literature block, leaving the other to stay completely still.

"What did she mean by that?" Ayumuu stared, and then her eyes blinked rapidly, since she did too much staring.

Later that day, Ayumuu collapsed on her bed; her head was swimming with ache and sores; her neck stiff from looking at the blackboard all day long. Holding her neck, she piled her homework on her desk.

The desk broke.

"Eh? ONII-SAN!!! THE DESK BROKE!" she screamed, and realised that her bag was very special, since it contained all of her homework without breaking, but an oak table broke immediately.

"The table did not break; it's just you and your periods….THE TABLE BROKE!" Shorou exclaimed, as he walked into the room.

"Of course it did, now, what are we going to do about that?" Ayumuu pouted, with her hands on her hips.

"First of all, how did you survive?" Shorou pointed to the near-perfect condition of her bag, and her face, which was not showing signs of physical exercise. In fact, it seemed as though she took a walk in the park, rather carrying a 3 and a half ton bag over a mile.

"…Good point…Wait, I think I know…" she replied slowly, and then took out everything in her bag.

She took out: a ruler that reached either 10 centimetres or 2 metres if she adjusted the settings properly; a rock that intrigued her; the note that was passed around the class saying that the teacher had a baboon's backside; the note that got passed back that said the teacher was a baboon's backside and the note that replied to everything else; the teacher is looking at us now.

"Nope, nothing's here I'm afraid, just a few pieces of stuff." Ayumuu replied, to no-one in particular since her brother went back to the kitchen and finished cooking.

"Make sure the bag gets checked by Spielly tomorrow, 'kay?" her brother cried out, "and dinner's ready!"

"Sho-onii, why did you break Onee's table?" Shinta asked when he was sitting down on his chair.

"Apparently, her homework was too heavy," Shorou replied hastily, not wanting the already tepid meal to get colder.

Shinta gasped, "You get that much homework? I don't want to go to school anymore," his eyes were crestfallen with the thought of homework that breaks tables.

"Don't worry about it, I just brought in all my work, it won't be like that…" Ayumuu smiled before she whispered under her breath, "…it'll be 10 times heavier."

When the three children sat at the table, eating their tepid meal, another girl was sitting in a barn, looking out of the window and wondering what has become of her, if the message she wants to receive really is coming to get her, without knowing where her family, her legacy or even those who were considered her friends, are.

Breathing a sigh, she climbed out of the neo-hay stack, and removed her clothing before replacing it with new ones, and washed her body using her pores, before looking at her glistening blue skin and watching it turn ghastly white.

"_Meus familia, que tu? __Jus oblige meus potentia_…"she whispered, her words shaping the air, and turning it into a swan, flying high above towards the sky, until it disappeared in the moonlit shadows; the last of the white dust settled on a person's feet.

"Armarmia…your life is to be gone soon," and a flash of Darkcraft glimmered in the air, destroying all the shards of the swan.


End file.
